Troy Galloway, former Marine, vanished from his home one night
After eight and a half years, a grandmother reached out to NewsNation for help finding her son who disappeared in January 2016.
Troy Robert Galloway left his California home on a chilly night, not dressed for the weather. His parents say the doting father struggled with his mental health but would never abandon his children.
Troy grew up in a doting home, supported by his parents even after they divorced. His mother, Nancy Galloway, said as a child, Troy was happy.
“He was a really good kid. He got good grades. He had lots of friends. People always love Troy,” she said.
His parents supported Troy’s decision to join the Marines after he graduated high school. His father, Rich Galloway, also served as a Marine in Vietnam.
“I didn’t know if it had anything to do with my background, or it was just a choice that he made,” Rich said. “And he really changed at that period. He became a man.”
Troy did well in the military, earning a spot in the prestigious Marine Corps Honor Guard in Washington, D.C. But in his mid-20s, Troy, a private first class, began to struggle.
“Out of nowhere, he just started doing some crazy stuff, buying a car and not making the payments on it,” Rich said. “Going AWOL a lot. He developed a schizoaffective disorder. And the military didn’t know anything about it. And it took a while to diagnose it.”
Troy was given an honorable discharge.
His family said Troy self-medicated and struggled with addiction. But he was a loving father to his son and worked hard to maintain a strong relationship when he married, had a daughter and moved from Santa Cruz, California, to the more remote city of Sonora, California, in the foothills of Yosemite.
“I even told him, ‘You know,’ I said, ‘you’re really blessed. You have these kids, and you have a good wife and all that,'” Nancy said. “And he said, ‘I know Mom, I know.’”
But Troy left his home suddenly on Jan. 13, 2016.
“His wife walked into the basement and caught him shooting up. And he ran out in January with snow on the ground in a t-shirt, tennis shoes and Levis,” Rich said.
Nancy was called two days later.
“If I would’ve known, the day he went missing, I would have driven up there three hours just to look for him,” she said.
Disappointed in the progress made searching for her son, Nancy helped start a missing person’s awareness day. She interviewed neighbors and discovered there was a commotion at the lake the night Troy disappeared.
“There was an incident near the lake, there was a man-made lake by their house, and they sent down a deputy to check it out. They didn’t see anything,” Nancy said. “That was a mistake, because they should have connected that.”
Troy’s family wonders if it could have been him at the lake that night.
Five years later, a new investigative team drained and searched Crystal Falls Lake. But they didn’t find Troy.
Nancy isn’t sure what happened to her son. But she holds on to hope, which is also the name of Troy’s daughter.
“Sometimes I have that hope, you know, he could be you could be walking around somewhere and I get really joyful. Oh, maybe he’ll come home,” she said.
The Tuolumne Sheriff’s Office is handling the case. They denied NewsNation’s request for an interview and a public records request for information on Troy’s case.
